Donkey Konga is the GameCube's first significant music beat game which uses the new DK Bogo controller. Players must drum, beat, and clap their way through the rhythms of a variety of popular songs. In the same vein of Sonic Team's Samba de Amigo and Namco's own Taiko: Drum Master, Donkey Konga is aimed not only to please old fans of the genre, but also to bring new ones in. So far, this seems to be happening.

The text from the back of the case follows:

Jungle Boogie!Le boogie de la jungle!

Grab your DK Bongos and let the rhythm move you! Clap your hands and drum to the beat of over thirty songs, from kids' medleys to classical remixes and pop favourites. Donkey Konga puts the music in your hands!

Is the
rhythm in you? That is the question to be had in the cunning music game Donkey
Konga. This is a game that revolves around you, the screen, and your pair of
bongos. The premise of this game is simpleÃ¢â¬âthere are four blips that roll
across the screen, in a very musically oriented sense. Each one corresponds to either
hitting the left bongo, the right bongo, both bongos, or clapping with your
hands, thanks to the bongos' built in microphone. That's right! You get clap
wildly and beat your bongos in this game! What could be more fun?

In all
seriousness, this game is all about rhythm, hence its tagline, "Is the rhythm
in you," or for those of you speak that parle Francais, "As-tu le rthyme dans
le sang?" As stated in the previous paragraph, the premise is in fact to hit
the bongos or clap in the way the blips prescribe. (From this point on the
blips will be referred to as notes, as that is in reality what they are) The
notes conjure up a wonderful percussion / bongo line for the song that you are
playing. Did you ever want to know how bongos would sound in the Turkish March?
This game would be for you then. In addition to the Turkish March, there are a multitude
of other songs (33 to be exact) that are there to test your rhythm. For those
of us who happen to not be rhythmically inclined, there are three difficulty
levelsÃ¢â¬âmonkey, chimp, and gorilla. The difficulty levels are designed to get
you up to speed with your rhythmic side, and for those who will never have a
rhythmic side, well, there are the monkey and chimp levels.

Donkey
Konga also features a coinage system, where the player accumulates coins
according to how well you complete the stage. Depending on how the player hits
a note corresponds to how many coins he or she gets. The notes can be hit in
four different waysÃ¢â¬âgreat, ok, bad, and miss. The player amasses coins for
hitting notes great or ok. In addition, the player can accumulate a combo for every
great or ok note hit. Hitting notes ok or great also increases your rating in
the clear meter, which starts in the red. Once the meter hits yellow, the
player has cleared the level, and he receives a silver ranking and the coins
that he has accumulated. If the meter becomes completely filled, then the
player receives a gold ranking in addition to the coins accumulated. The coins
accumulated can then be used to buy mini games, new bongo noises, or the song
in the gorilla difficulty level.

The game
also includes several modes. There's street performance, which I described in
the previous paragraphs, there's challenge mode, which is an endless street performance,
and then there are the multiplayer modes, Jam Session, and Battle. Battle mode, as the name implies, is
a battle to see who is the better drummer, you or your friend, while the Jam
Session has you and up to three of your closest friends working together to
make some beautiful music. Challenge mode can also be played with two players.
While your friends can use the normal GameCube controller as their "bongos," I
personally recommend that for the best experience the game must be played with
real bongos. There is a certain fun that can't be translated when playing the
game with the ordinary GameCube controller.

There are
some people who would say that Donkey Konga is much akin to another music game
franchise, Dance Dance Revolution. My response to that is that those who think
that are dead wrong! The game is actually a Nintendoized version of Namco's
Taiko: Drum Master in almost every way! Is that a coincidence? Of course not,
since Namco is the developer of Donkey Konga! While Donkey Konga may have some
striking similarities to other music games the game is still extremely
enjoyable. Those who enjoy musically oriented games such as DDR or Samba de
Amigo need to check this game out. Those who are repulsed by DDR and its "Dancing"
should also still check this game out, as this game is missing the "Make a fool
of yourself" dancing element that DDR has. GameCube owners and Music Genre
Lovers should definitely try this game out.